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WE&T Magazine

Water Environment & Technology (WE&T) is the premier magazine for the water quality field. WE&T provides information on what professionals demand: cutting-edge technologies, innovative solutions, operations and maintenance, regulatory and legislative impacts, and professional development.

August
2010, Vol.
22, No.8

WEFTEC Offers Unparalleled Education, Technology

WEFTEC 2010 will take place October 2–6 in New Orleans, La. With a comprehensive technical program of 112 technical sessions, 35 workshops, and six local facility tours, the 83rd annual event is expected to draw thousands of water quality professionals and exhibitors from around the world. At press time, more than 900 companies have already reserved more than 26,780 m2 (288,200 ft2) of floor space at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center.

Featured Articles

Approaching the Limit

The new Spokane County (Wash.) Regional Water Reclamation Facility is designed to achieve one of the most stringent effluent phosphorus limits in North America, 50 μg/L total phosphorus (TP) on a seasonal average basis. The plant also has a 10-mg/L total nitrogen (TN) limit and a 0.25-mg/L ammonia limit. The facility uses chemically enhanced primary treatment followed by a step-feed membrane bioreactor system, with metal salts for phosphorus removal. Using metal salts essentially eliminates the recycle of phosphorus from the solids handling system, since the salts still have capacity to absorb the released phosphorus from the digestion system.

Two-Stage Media Filtration Meeting 21st Century Requirements

Before drinking water reaches the taps of the 9 million consumers in New York City, it literally travels hundreds of miles through wetlands, streams, reservoirs, and aqueducts in the upstate watershed regions and then through the city’s massive water distribution network. Although many obstacles exist to keeping the water of an unfiltered water supply system protected, none is more obvious than the need to ensure that discharges from upstream wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the watershed are of the highest quality. For a number of these WWTPs, the conventional technology of sand filtration with a new “dynamic” has made all the difference in the world.

News

Growing Graywater Use Will Likely Have Little Effect on Reuse, Report Says

For years, a small but dedicated cadre of enthusiasts has championed the use of graywater — untreated wastewater from sources other than toilets and, generally, kitchen sinks — as a means of conserving limited water supplies in arid environments. Typically, interest in the use of graywater peaks during periods of drought, only to decline once the drought subsides. However, could increased use of graywater have negative consequences for water and wastewater utilities, particularly those engaged in efforts to promote water reuse? The answer is, “Probably not,” according to a recently released report commissioned by the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) and two other associations. Even though the use of graywater may increase in drought-prone locations, the report finds, such an increase is not expected to have a significant effect on utility operations.

Coming in the next issue:

September 2010

A major overhaulYou might not recognize the next issue of WE&T. September marks the debut of our completely redesigned look. Don’t worry, the interesting, informative, and educational content isn’t going anywhere — it will just come to you in a more accessible and modern design.

Growing and adaptingOur efforts to streamline things as we prepare for the future are similar in concept to how utilities nationwide are reinventing their approaches to succession planning and training. As one article states, “the status quo is that there is no status quo.”

In this issue you’ll find articles about what utilities, regions, and industry groups are doing to prepare. Their activities include constructing plans to recruit new talent in the face of increasing retirement numbers, joining forces to offer low-cost educational opportunities to their employees, and building courses to prepare today’s front-line operators to become tomorrow’s superintendents.

Practical mattersThe September issue also contains the solid technical articles that share the solutions engineers and operators have found. The articles range from the straightforward — a do-it-yourself device to collect mercury samples — to the complex — determining if tire chips can replace gravel in a constructed wetland.